Supreme Court of California

In an antitrust suit brought by retail pharmacies under section 1 of the Cartwright Act and unfair competition law, claiming that manufacturers of pharmaceutical products had unlawfully conspired to fix the prices of their brand-name pharmaceuticals in the U.S. market at levels of 50 to 400 percent higher than for the same drugs sold outside the U.S., the court of appeal's affirmance of trial court's grant of defendants' motion for summary judgment is reversed and remanded where: 1) for state antitrust purposes, the Hanover Shoe rule should apply even as indirect purchasers are allowed to sue, and as such, under the Cartwright Act, a no pass-on defense generally may not be asserted; and 2) plaintiffs have standing under the UCL and the right to seek injunctive relief under section 17203 is not dependent on the right to seek restitution.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/12/2010
• Published 07/12/2010

Judges

• WERDEGAR, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Joseph M. Alioto, Peter A. Strotz